Today was open day at the shed, I had in total 8 visitors at various times during the day. I met a prospective Schionning builder and his wife and father, as well as Jo’s mum and friends as well as a couple of my other building friends so I reckon I stopped to chat for at least an hour today. Unfortunately I missed finishing all I needed to buy about half an hour. I just have a small section at the very back of the roof, about a meter by 2 meters to do. I also have a small strip either side of the 2 frames I attached to keep the roof in shape while the glass sets.

I also have a number of blocks under the roof keeping it pressed up against the frame. I cant screw through the roof to keep the roof against the frame for 2 reasons, first I would need to get under the roof to screw through it into the frame which is hard enough but not impossible, but more importantly I don’t want to puncture the now sealed glass on the outside of the roof (underside of the upside down roof) with a screw through it. I can patch a hole if I needed to but I prefer not to puncture it. I have used gravity and blocks strategically placed to keep the roof in shape.

I started the day by filling the gaps and joins in the planks and some of the kerfs that I did not get glue into when I planked. I let it tack off a little then glassed a strip of glass (1300mm wide) over the wet glue. I made a small mistake. I had some glue left over and rather than waste it I filled some more gaps in the next section I was to glass but by the time I got to glassing it the glue was rubbery and as a result I got a few air bubble in the roof. Fortunately for me, these are over the cockpit not the saloon. I will probably grind them down and patch them. I will have to wait for the glass to set to see how big they will be. I intend to glue another layer of nidacore to the underside of the cockpit roof overhang to stiffen it up so that I can walk out onto the roof if I need to so in the end these bubbles will be sandwiched between another core with 2 layers of glass (one each side) over it, so it may not be necessary to patch them.

Tomorrow I will finish glassing the small areas I need to finish glassing the inside of the roof, I will move the frames slightly so I can get to the strips under them that are not glassed and the patch at the back I did not do. Then I will leave the roof to fully set for a few days before I can move it. I will still have a few jobs I will want to do on it before I put it on the boat, including adding the extra layer over the cockpit, making the saloon roof lining using the roof as the mold, and shaping the roof to size (although I may still do this after it is fitted to the boat) and I may also cut the holes for the sunroofs and fit them.